2 Search Results for "kwgs"

• Politicized at a Young Age

  • From: marmac6804
  • Description:

    I became politically aware in 1964. I would have been 8. My father's good friend was running for the U.S. Senate and I got dragged along to events as a sort of window dressing.

    For some reason, I started to pay attention to what was being said at those gatherings and connecting them with the Civil Rights stories on the evening news. When my father explained how blacks were being treated, why there was violence, who Dr King was and so on, I got really interested. I started seeing politics as a way to right wrongs and as a nobel profession. OK, so I was nieve ... I was 8.

    I wanted to run for office for a long time, but found I was more comfortable trying to influence those in power with my arguments for doing the right thing. I have been involved in many different campaigns and have enjoyed being part of the process.

    My activisim has waned as I have gotten older, but I still feel my early political awareness gave me a much wider global view than many others and was a good thing in the long run.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 233
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• Pele: Goddess of volcanoes and

  • From: Trish Whittaker
  • Description:

    The first time I got political was when I was working at The Crystal Market in Boulder 1987. I became friends with a group of women who were planning a back country action to protest nuclear weapons testing on the Nevada Nuclear Weapons test site. I had never even done a Sunday afternoon protest at Rocky Flats before this!

    After going to a few meetings I was in the group, we called our affinity group Pele. This protest involved hiking 20-30 miles through the desert into the heart of the test site to blockade a road and carried with it a certain 6 months in jail. I felt that this was my way of showing that I cared about the fate of the planet and mostly I did it for the kids and the child I would one day have.

    We staged our protest on Mothers' Day weekend 1987. We were arrested and bailed out then came back for trial that summer. We were convicted of trespass with intent to vex and annoy and sentenced to 6 months in the Nye County jail. Serving our time in jail was really a whole second action as I believe we touched many more people through our time served. This was in our every day interactions with the Sheriffs department, deputies, the staff at the hospital/nursing home where we spent time washing dishes as trusties, talking with the male inmates that we served meals to, all our families, friends, other activists and all the people who heard about our protest.

    On April 7th it will be 20 years since we got out of jail. In many ways it was the most soulful thing I have ever done: to walk on that sacred ground in the desert, blessing it with every step, my one small act in defiance of the powers that be.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 390
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